Archive for July, 2008

Toronto man now facing drug charges too

A Toronto bike shop owner facing dozens of charges related to a massive stash of stolen bicycles stockpiled at several locations across the city is now facing numerous drug charges as well.

As Igor Kenk, a self-proclaimed former Slovenian police officer, waited for his bail hearing to begin yesterday on numerous bike theft charges, police charged him with four more drug offences, bringing the total to 21.

That’s after more than six kilograms of marijuana was found hidden among bikes in two garages. Previous police seizures included marijuana and 85 grams of crack cocaine and cocaine powder allegedly found in the home Kenk shares with his wife, concert pianist Jeanie Chung, said Det. Const. Aaron Dennis.

Police have recovered 2,700 bikes mostly from garages around the downtown city core, said Dennis.

Kenk made a brief appearance in bail court before he was sent to a special court because of the long list of charges.

A publication ban has been placed on the evidence heard.

Kenk remains in custody and will take the stand again tomorrow, while his co-accused, Jean Laveau, 47, appears in another court on charges related to bike theft.

Several biking enthusiasts were on hand to watch the bail hearing. Kenk’s ramshackle Bicycle Clinic was well known among Toronto cyclists.

“Bikes are finally getting the respect they deserve,” said Navid Taslimi, 36, a former messenger who’s had two bikes stolen and plans on going to the police viewing of recovered bicycles in hopes of finding the polo bike he fashioned from old parts.

Alex House, 21, who started a Facebook group on the subject, came to court to “rally the bicycle community to attend (Kenk’s) trial.”

So far, he said, more than 300 confirmed guests have visited the site.

A news story about hard-court bicycle polo from Melbourne paper The Age. I found this on Flickr. Follow the link to a readable size. Over all this is a pretty good story in my opinion, plenty of real-estate, good photo, listing this as a “sport”, siting Vancouver, Chicago and New York and only using the word “urban” in parenthesis after calling the sport “hard-court bike polo”. And it seems that a few different cities play in Australia. Keep it up down there.

It cracks me up that in the side notes to the article they talk about the Segway Polo World Championship final. The Silicon Aftershocks Vs. New Zealand Pole Blacks resulted in a 2-2 tie!?! That would never happen in bike polo.

Milwaukee Bicycle Co. is making a chain ring and bash guard all in one integrated piece. Just one BCD and tooth size right now*. I’m not sure if it will work nicely with cranksets that are not the Sugino XD. Seems to me like they might. And there is no listed price. But here’s what they look like. I think it couldwill does look good on my polo bike! Thanks Drew!!

* 110 BCD, 35 Tooth

UPDATE:

All in one guard and chainring. No more bent chainrings! In production.

- Designed solely for the Sugino XD 110bcd cranks – One of the reasons why we chose those cranks is availability; unlike other smaller closet manufacturers these cranks will always be available.
But probably the foremost reason… not only does the compact 110bcd XD spider make for a stronger system than a 130bcd or larger bcd, but the “offset” XD spider is perfect because it puts one spider arm right behind and part of the actual crankarm, so there is one less spider arm to get hit by a mallet.
- The 35 tooth ring – by making the smallest ring possible it adds to the strength.
- The gear ratios – a 35t chainring and the following cogs/freewheels gets you this assortment of gear inches…

12t – 78.8”

13t – 72.7”

14t – 67.5”

15t – 63.0”

16t – 59.1”

17t – 55.6”

18t – 52.5”

19t – 49.7”

20t – 47.3”

21t – 45.0”

22t – 43.0”

We wanted to fit ratios that allowed a polo player to ride to a match with a small cog on one side of the wheel and flip it to the polo gear on the other side of the wheel when they got to the match.

- The five pockets in the guard make it possible to rotate the guard if for some reason a certain section gets damaged. Although we don’ see that happening, but one never knows. This guard measures 14mm at its thickest point.
- CNC’d out of 7075 T6 Aluminum – one of the most durable alloys available and the choice of material for many professional track racing chainrings. So you should get miles and miles and miles of use.
- Price point – Sugino XD’s in 165 or 170mm / Silver or Black arms and the Polo Guard as a crankset for $125.

As seen on the BWM blog. In a friendly visit to the shop, some Red Bull girls recently stopped by to deliver some cold drinks on a hot ass day. Must be nice, when I’m at work messengering and see a Red Bull racer driving around I have to race though traffic to catch up and ask real nice if they have any cold ones to spare. My freebie success rate is pretty good but you can’t beat free Red Bull delivered (unless we’re talking about red bull and donuts). And looks like the boys from the shop appreciate it too and left a thank you note on the racers over sized can.